My Motley Meanderings

It's bloody freezing down here too. There's frost on the ground and I surely look like Rudolph :-) The local radio station reckons we may get snow (they say that everytime it gets cold. We usually just get frost lol)

Everyone's digging out their winter coats (I wish I still had ear muffs) and yet the shops are already starting to stock sunglasses and stuff. Which is fine if you can afford to go abroad, but you're done for if you just want a coat :-/

I have a fleecy hat that covers my ears but it makes me look ridiculous, especially when I combine it with my brightly patterned wooly scarf, and when I take it off my hair sticks out in all directions at once.

I remember one occasion when we went caving in the middle of winter and it went dark while we were underground. When we came out again it had got so cold that the wet ropes and SRT gear froze solid on the way back to the car, then there was a mad rush to get changed as quickly as possible before we froze solid too.

I hope the stuff you have to wear while caving is thermal if you're going to go caving in winter (seems far too dangerous to me.)

You can either wear a drysuit with something wooly/fleecy underneath (though drysuit is a bit of a misnomer as you inevitably get wet anyway), or you can wear a thick wetsuit. I've always used the former but it's a matter of preference really. Wetsuits are better for very wet caves, and they provide extra cushioning against knocks and scrapes, but they tend to restrict your movement a bit and they can get very hot if you're exerting a lot of energy in a dry section of cave.

The temperature generally isn't much different to what it is in the summer once you get more than a few metres under the surface. It's entrance waterfalls and the trek over the moors to/from the cave where you can wind up freezing cold.

Caving is actually one of the most practical winter outdoor activities because of the near-constant underground temperature, providing you don't mind occasionally having to get changed outside in the middle of a blizzard ;)

Was the shop wearing the T-shirt or the woman?

Touché.